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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Beyond the Deepwoods
Young Twig is different. Raised by a woodtroll family since infancy, he's never fit in at home, in his village, or at school. As he approaches his 14th birthday, he learns the circumstances of his beginnings: how he was abandoned by his...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Corby Flood
Corby Flood and her family are about to set sail on a rather ramshackle cruise ship, the S.S. Euphonia. Onboard, among the odd passengers and eccentric crew, there is a strange group of men in bowler hats who call themselves the...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Fergus Crane
Fergus Crane discovers that his teachers from the school ship Betty Jeanne are not quite what they seem - they're actually pirates! Can Fergus and his winged horse save his schoolmates on the far-off Fire Island? And who else will he...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Freeglader by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
After the great battle and destruction of Undertown, its surviving inhabitants must seek out a new life in the Free Glades, but to do so will require a mass exodus across the treacherous Mire and the seductive Twilight Woods. Led by a...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Hugo Pepper
After his adventure-seeking, storytelling parents are eaten by polar bears in the Frozen North when he is just a baby, Hugo Pepper is found and raised by reindeer herders. One day he discovers a flying sled with a very special compass -...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Midnight Over Sanctaphrax
Captain Twig learns that the Mother Storm is headed toward the Edge to re-seed the sacred waters of Riverrise, and thus rejuvenate all life forms throughout the land. This rare and natural occurrence would come as great news but for one...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Stormchaser
Twig lives as a sky pirate alongside his famous father, Cloud Wolf, until the Stormchaser is damaged due to Twig's inexperience. A furious Cloud Wolf leaves Twig behind on their next quest for the sacred material stormphrax. Not knowing...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: The Curse of the Gloamglozer
In this prequel to the first three volumes, readers meet young Quint long before his sky pirating days, as he becomes the apprentice to Linius Pallitax, the Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax. Shortly after his arrival, Quint is enlisted...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: The Last of the Sky Pirates
Fifty years after Captain Twig severed the anchor chain securing the floating rock of Sanctaphrax to Undertown, all is not well in the great floating city or the urban sprawl of Undertown. Rook Barkwater is selected as a Librarian Knight...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: The Winter Knights
As the floating city of Sanctaphrax becomes gripped by a harsh and relentless winter, Quint begins his training in the Knights Academy, the venerable school charged with training the elite band of Knights Academic. As the buoyant rock...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Vox by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Rook Barkwater's skycraft crashes in the deadly area of the Edge known as Screetown. Rook is rescued, only to be captured on the way back to the sewers that house the Great Library. Mindwashed and forced to work for a sinister goblin...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Godless by Pete Huatman
A simple gag makes faith the centerpiece of Jason Bock's summer: What if the town water tower is God? Jason shares his quirky observation with his friend Shin, and soon finds himself the head of a new religious sect of "Chutengodians"...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
High on the side of rocky Mount Eskel, far from the valleys where gardens are green and lush, where lowlanders make laws, Miri's family has lived forever, pounding a living from the stone of the mountain itself. For as long as she can...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
She was born with her eyes closed and a word on her tongue, a word she could not taste. Her name was Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt's stories...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Bloomability by Sharon Creech
Bloomability, by Newbery medalist Sharon Creech, tells the coming-of-age tale of Dinnie, a thirteen-year-old girl uprooted from her parents' nomadic lifestyle to spend a year in Switzerland. Dinnie is used to change, since her whole life...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel
To Dance is a graphical memoir of Siena Cherson Siegel, a young girl growing up in Puerto Rico who eventually came to New York to study with the School of American Ballet. It captures the passion of the artist, as well as the discipline...
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Ad lit.org: Reading Discussion Guide: Betsy and the Emperor by Staton Rabon
Fourteen-year-old English girl Betsy Balcombe and her family have an unusual houseguest: Napoleon Bonaparte, former emperor of France and the most feared man on earth. Once lord and master to eighty-two million souls, now, in 1815,...
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Ad lit.org: Use Cooperative Learning Groups to Engage Learners
When teachers structure cooperative learning groups as part of the overall reading program, they also open the door to a multiple intelligences approach to literacy, which is inherent in cooperative learning. This article offers guidance...
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Ad lit.org: Key Literacy Component: Morphology
Morphology describes how words are formed from building blocks called morphemes, the smallest unit of meaning in a word. Students who don't understand this structure have trouble recognizing, understanding, and spelling words. Find out...
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All4ed.org: Urgent but Overlooked: Literacy Crisis Among Adolescent El Ls
English language learners (ELLs) represent more than 10% of the national pre-K through 12th grade enrollment, and more than 70% of these ELLs fail to develop strong literacy skills. To increase this group's educational, college, and job...
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Ad lit.org: What's the Big Idea? Integrating Young Adult Literature
Drawing on New York City teachers' experiences, this article examines three ways to effectively integrate young adult literature into the curriculum: use core texts (usually novels, but also other genres as well) that the entire class...
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Ad lit.org: What Schools and Students Can Do to Foster College Readiness
If schools and students understand college readiness in a more comprehensive way, they can do more to develop the full range of capabilities and skills needed to succeed in college. Click on Classroom Strategies on the left of the page...
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Ad lit.org: Cognitive Strategies Toolkit
This article describes eight cognitive strategies - including monitoring, tapping prior knowledge, and making predictions - to help readers develop their comprehension skills.